The Hardtop arrived today! 10/4/00 about 2 weeks after it was sent from Japan. The direct link for ordering your own hardtop will be up in the Spyder Store shortly. Everything arrived A-OK, and as you can see from the pictures below, it looks AWESOME! The ride is stiffer, the sound of the car is better, all around a huge plus to have this hard top, well worth the effort, in my opinion. BTW, a big Thanks to Koops who came over to help install the top, he likes it too! The install took about an hour, and that was because we stopped to take pictures, you could probably do it in less. The kit is complete, everything you would want or need for the top comes with the kit including two replacement plastic interior panels that have a cut-out for the hard top support brackets.
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The hardtop arrives via BAX global shipping, here's the guy bringing it off the truck. |
The box is well made and everything arrived intact. |
As you can see the box comes on its own palette, the stand box is on top of the big box. |
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All genuine Toyota parts, all in Japanese! |
Opening the box for the first time, everything is nicely wrapped up. |
Just to be sure, yes it is really Solar Yellow! Big sigh of relief! |
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Everything you need to install is located in two bags of accessories and instructions. |
Parts list, everything was there! |
First step, pop rear trunk lid and remove these pieces. |
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Flexible antenna allows us to photograph the bolt that you must remove. |
Remove 14mm bolt that hold the seat belt in place. |
Push in the center to remove these plastic pins, two per side. |
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Carefully pull this panel forward, don't forget to take out the spacer panel in the storage area! |
Close up of the spacer panel that was removed, the label says you can remove it to increase your luggage space! Oh boy! |
Yes look at that additional 3 inches of space with the spacer panel removed! This is also where the windshield defroster cable is located. |
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The white pins hold these plastic pieces in place along with clips along the door sill. |
Looking down you can see the second lower white clip and the two clips along the door sill. Be sure to loosen the bottom door sill to get this piece out. |
Once you remove the plastic piece, you can install the hard top support bars that the clamps attach to on each side. Two bolts hold them in. |
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A close up of the hard top clamp bar attached to the car. |
Removing the driver's side panel next. Repeat the process on the driver's side. |
At first we thought we didn't need to remove these panels that we could just flex them out, then we found the replacement panels under the hard top in the box and realized that the replacement panels had cut-outs for the support bars, so you need to swap these plastic panels. |
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Driver's side support bar attached. |
Remove black sticker to expose the bolt hole necessary for the new hard top piece. |
Remove bolt that passes through body side panel, leaving 3 holes for bolts. |
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Attach new chrome lock down brackets with the bolts supplied. |
The outer bolts require an allen wrench. |
Completed lock down bracket. |
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Both lock down brackets in place. |
Attach rear window defroster cable on passenger side. You can swap between hard top or soft top defroster at this point. |
Christmas time! Unwrap the present! |
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Here is the difference between the two side panels, note the one for the hardtop has the cut-outs. |
Attaching the new plastic panels with the cut-outs. |
Slide them carefully straight back and lock in both white pins and the clips along the door sill. |
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Don't forget to re-attach the seatbelt bolt! |
Unwrapping the hard top, getting ready to place it on the car. |
Want to see it on the car? Or was the install enough for you? If you really want to see it on the car, CLICK HERE! |
